Chatham if its 5:00am on a Saturday in August. Or, with the recent winds from the north and east cooling down the bayside, maybe...na. So what's the prognosis? Is there any thing to dredge up down Chatham way, from shore, this weekend? Will there be a Striblue or a Penguin or any other wierd sightings down there?

Fred..I spoke to our favorite firefighter last night and he picked up two on south beach on the ocean side..saw some bait guy get a couple also... I will be going to Monomoy on the 8...I may be at the light house at 5 am..not sure yet.

If this is like most years, the movement of the mind boggling numbers of sand eels (that are just outside now) into the inlet shoals will get nightly sorties of big (read: BIG) bass into the bay. You can always tell because there are so many in the sand as you walk that they radiate out like little lightning bolts, some leap out of the water around you.

Unlike the summertime shrimp sippers up inside (I love 'em and I hate 'em) these oceanside cows like a little meat and they like it down and dirty. Who could forget big girl bar, the epitome of this behavior. I hate to admit that I had been enjoying that routine for while before telling anyone about it, and it is a consistent late summer phenomenon throughout the region.

I don't understand the big die-off a bit later on in the season, have to talk to a biologist about that one still...

But my point is, the sand eels will move inshore soon and so will the August bass. The fishing in Chatham never gets bad, it just moves around.

But the bayside is where it's at if you ask me. We had a fantastic outing last weekend and it would have been 10 times that if we could only see the fish we were hitting on the flats! Anxious eaters if you know their travel lanes.

For boaters the outside beyond the mung is loaded if you know where to look. Capt. Bruce Peters is probably finding some right now, as well as he knows the outside rips. Heck if the mung clears the outside would be gangbusters from shore I'm sure.

Soon, all eyes will turn toward hardtail territory as the bonito, spanish macs, albies, etc make their appearances. Break out the wasabi, here they come!